South Sudan Refugee Crisis Grows

20 March 2017, New York, USA | South-South News — The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said South Sudan’s refugee crisis is now the world’s fastest growing, with a rate of 2,000 people fleeing the country daily.

Babar Baloch, the Spokesperson for the UNHCR, told reporters in Geneva on March 17 that “eight months after fresh violence erupted in South Sudan, a famine produced by the vicious combination of fighting and drought is now driving the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.”

Baloch added “total displacement from South Sudan into the neighboring region is now 1,6 million people. The rate of new displacement is alarming, representing an impossible burden on a region that is significantly poorer and which is fast running short of resources to cope.”

Refugees are fleeing into Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Central African Republic and Uganda, which is hosting about half of the total number of refugees.

Baloch said, “Until recently we are seeing new arrivals there at a rate of around 2,000 people daily. The influx peaked in February at more than 6,000 in a single day. In March, the peak in a single day has been more than 5,000 with the current daily average of over 2,800 arriving from South Sudan into Uganda.